Talking to a couple of experienced affiliates, I got the sense that even they were somewhat jaded after years of doing Christmas and holiday promos.

Luckily eBay has released market research on toy ideas for the holiday season. (see the study here)

With the emphasis on tech toys like the xBox360, Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3, it’s easy to overlook perenial classics like Monopoly, Barbie, Winnie the Pooh which continue to be popular year after year.

While it’s easy to put up a page featuring these toys, it’s also important to figure out a compelling reason why visitors should buy from your site, and ultimately influence your sales conversions.

In most cases, though kids can influence the buying decision, it’s the parent’s who’ll have to pull out the credit card and complete the purchase.

Having a colorful and friendly looking site helps, but here are some tips to help your site shine:

• Information helps shape the buying decision: With many similar products in each category, whether it’s a doll, a computer or sports equipment, providing relevant information to help the decision maker (the parent) decide which toy from the wide range available is best.
• An educational spin doesn’t hurt: Toys which are tagged as being part of the Lamaze learning system or incorporating “brain development” features will outsell their plain-Jane counterparts. Double barrelling the entertainment with a dose of education will make the product seem more useful. A Lego brick is more than just a block of plastic. It helps develop “spatial awareness” and visualization skills.
• The scare of scarcity: Remember when Tickle Me Elmo dolls were going for a king’s ransom? With the clock ticking down and toys in short supply closer to Dec 25th, you can use the sense of urgency to your advantage. The merchant’s ability to provide overnight delivery can make a crucial difference in your marketing efforts.

Here’s a couple of techniques to bump your CTR (clickthrough rate) and conversions:

• Behavioral-based bid management

Research shows that consumers are surfing shopping sites and doing price comparisons during work hours. Bump your ad positions during office hours to get better ad positioning (and consequently, higher conversions).

• Match your consumers stage in the buying cycle

Your keywords determine your websites’ visitor profile. For buyers early in the buying cycle, they’d be looking for information, product reviews, so create an appropriate content site.

Buyers in the later stage, primed to buy, will be looking for coupon codes, bonuses, and other goodies, so a coupon site or inventive site will convert better for that demographic.

• Highly targeted landing pages

Spend more time focusing on targeted and highly relevant keywords. Instead of “holiday events”, shoot for adgroups containing “holiday ice skating show” or “holiday ice capades” pointing at a page containing specific event information and you’ll see your profits spike.

• Specific buy phrases

Especially during the holiday season, consumers might be typing buying phrases like “gifts for dad”, “electronics under $25” or “xbox360 christmas promotion”. Include these in your campaign and get ready for the ka-ching to come in…

For more tips, visit: Industry Newsletters for Holiday Season

I have a number of banking accounts and financial trading account. It’s always an interesting exercise to see what happens in September.

I got a package from Citibank, which included the following:

Blue Magnolia’s one of the premiere bakeries in Singapore and to have the bank buy me a cake on my birthday gives an indication of their priority in building a relationsip. I also got a greeting card from one of my stock brokers.

Any word from my Standard Chartered Bank banker? Or the other 6 trading houses where I have an account at?

NADA.

Just make an educated guess where I’ll be doing my banking and stock trading at?

No prizes for correct guesses.

Likewise, in the Internet Marketing world, take a look at your own Internet marketing efforts.

Sure you can blast out a “Seasons Greetings” email round about Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years, but isn’t that what half of the marketers are already doing? [The other half are presumably holding “festive firesales” or “I need to buy a Power Ranger for my Kid firesale” —kinda pathetic in my opinion…]

What would it mean to send a handwritten greeting card to your high value clients?

What would it do to up your game?

It wouldn’t take more than a stamp and 5 minutes of your time, and it could go lightyears in cementing that relationship.

I’ve seen realtors sell multi-million dollar houses built on a relationship of sending greeting cards over a number of years.

When you think about that, doesn’t that little ounce of customer relationship management yield huge long tail profits?